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SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN 



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AT THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 



22D ZDA.Y OIF 1 FEBETTAEY, 1842. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Esq., 

i Ind Published hj the Direction ol die So 



Springfield, Illinois : 
Re-Printeit for, and Published by, the Springfield Reform < Lnb. 

i--.. 



i 457 



Anniversary of the Springfield Washingtonian 
Temperance Society. 



San gaixio Journal, Feb. 25, 1842.- .Editorial ) 

This anniversary, the first of the kind celebrated in this county, 
passed off well. A procession was formed at 11 o'clock, at the 
Methodist Church, under direction of Col. B. S. Clement as Chief 
Marshal, and, escorted by the beautiful company of Sangamo 
Guards, under command of Capt. E. D. Baker, marched through 
some of the principal streets of the city, and reached the Second 
Presbyterian Church at 12 o'clock. The address, delivered by Mr. 
Lincoln, in our opinion, was excellent. The Society directed it to 
be printed. The singing delighted the immense crowd. Several 
pieces were a second time called for and repeated. Indeed, the 
whole was a most happy affair. The weather was delightful. 



i 



ADDRESS. 



Although the Temperance Cause has been in progress for near twenty 
years, it is apparent to all, that it is just now being crowned with a degree 
of success, hitherto unparalleled. 

The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of hun- 
dreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed 
from a cold abstract theory, to a living, breathing, active and powerful 
chieftain, going forth "conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his 
great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temples arid his 
altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been performed, 
and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are daily dese- 
crated and deserted. The trump of the conquerer's fame is sounding from 
hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, and calling millions to 
his standard at a blast. 

For this new and splendid success, we heartily rejoice. That, that success 
is so much greater now, than heretofore, is doubtless owing to rational 
causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire what 
those causes are. 

The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance, has, 
somehow or other, been erroneous. Either the champions engaged, or the 
tactics they adopted, have not been the most proper. These champions for 
the most part, have been preachers, lawyers and hired agents, between these 
and the mass of mankind, there is a want of approachability, if the term be 
admissable, partially at least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to 
have no sympathy of feeling or interest, with those very persons whom it is 
their object to convince and persuade. 

And again, it is so easy and so common to ascribe motive* to men of these 
classes, other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher it is said, 
advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union of the 
church and State; the law3 r er from his pride, and vanity of hearing himself 
speak; and the hired agent for his salary. 

But when one, who has long been known as a victim of intemperance, 
bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears before his neighbors 
"clothed and in his right mind," a redeemed specimen of long lost human 
ity, and stands up with tears of joy trembling in eyes, to tell of the miseries 
once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and 
starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife, long weighed 



down with woe, weeping and a broken heart, now restored to health, happi- 
ness and a renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once it is re- 
solved to be done; how simple his language, there is a logic and an eloquence 
in it, that few, with human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he de- 
sires a union of church and State, for he is not a church member; they con- 
not say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows 
he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he speaks for pay for 
he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be 
doubted; or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his exam- 
ple, be denied. 

In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions that 
our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the old-school 
champions themselves, been of the most wise selecting, was their system of 
tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much denun- 
ciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This I think 
was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because it is not much in 
the uature of man to be driven to anything; still less to be driven about 
that, which is exclusively his own business; and least of all, where such 
driving is to be submitted to, at the expense of pecuniary interest, or burn- 
ing appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker, were incessantly told, not 
in the accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring 
man to an erring brother; but in the thundering tones of anathema and de- 
nunciation, with which the lordly judge often groups together all the crimes 
of the felon's life, and thrusts them in his face just e're he passes sentence of 
death upon him, that they w T ere the authors of all the vice and misery and 
crime in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of all the 
thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that their houses 
were the workships of the devil; and that their persons should be shunned 
by all the good and virtuous, as moral pestilences. I say, when they were 
told all this, and in this way, it is not w T onderful that they were slow, very 
slow, to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, and to join the ranks 
of their denouncers, in a hue and cry against themselves. 

To have expected them to do otherwise than they did — to have expected 
them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with crimina- 
tion, and anathema with anathema — was to expect a reversal of human na- 
ture, which is God's decree and can never be reversed. 

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind 
Unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true 
maxim, "that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." So 
with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you 
are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, 
which, say what lie will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when 
once gained, you will rind but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the 
justice of youi' cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the con- 
trary, assume to dictate to Ids judgment, or to command his action, or to 
mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within him- 
self, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and though your cause 
be naked truth itself, t ran s formed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, 
and sharper than steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than 



herculean force and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce hirn, than 
to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye-straw. Such is man, and 
so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best 
interests. 

On this point, the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates 
of former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are 
their old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor 
even the worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous 
and charitable, even beyond the example of their more staid and sober 
neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with a gener- 
ous and brotherly zeal, that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. Benev- 
olence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out of the abundance 
of their hearts, their tongues give utterance, "Love through all their actions 
run, and all their words are mild;" in this spirit they speak and act, and in 
the same, they are heard and regarded. And when such is the temper of the 
advocate, and such of the audience, no good cause can be unsuccessful. But 
I have said that denunciations against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers, are 
unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. 

I have not enquired at what period of time, the use of intoxicating liquors 
commenced; nor is it important to know. It is sufficient that to all ot us 
who now inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them, is just as old as 
the world itself — that is, we have seen the one, just as long as we have seen 
the other. When all such of us at have now reached the years of maturity, 
first opened our eyes upou the stage of existence, we found intoxicating 
liquor; recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. 
It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant, and the last draught 
of the dying man. From, the sideboard of the parson, down to the ragged 
pocket of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians pre- 
scribed it, in this, that and the other disease; Government provided it for 
soldiers and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or "hoe- 
down" anywhere about, without it, was positively unsufferable. So too, it was 
everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and of merchandise. The 
making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he could make 
most, was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small manufac- 
tories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their 
owners were invested. Wagons drew it from tow ? n to |town; boats bore it 
from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation to nation; and 
merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with precisely the 
same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer and by-stander, as are felt at 
the selling and buying of plows, beef, bacon, or any other of the real neces- 
saries of life. Universal public opinion not only tolerated, but recognized 
and adopted its use. 

It is true, that even then, it was known and acknowledged, that many 
were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injur}- arose from 
the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The vic- 
tims of it w T ere to be pitied, and compassionated, just as are the heirs of con- 
sumption, and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a mis- 
fortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. 



If then, what I have been saying is true, is it wonderful, that some should 
think and act now, as all thought and acted twenty years ago, and is it just 
to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal sense of 
mankind, on any subject, is an argument, or at least an influence not easily 
overcome. The success of the argument in favor of the existence of an 
over-ruling Providence, mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought 
not, in justice, to be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving it 
up slowly, especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burn- 
ing appetites. 

Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was 
the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and there- 
fore, must be turned adrift, and damned without remedy, in order that the 
grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all man- 
kind some hundreds ef years thereafter. There is in this, something so re- 
pugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold blooded and feelingless, that 
it never did, nor never can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. We 
could not love the man who taught it — we could not hear him with patience. 
The heart could not throw open its portals to it, the generous man could not 
adopt it, it could not mix with his blood. It looked so fiendishly selfish, so 
like throwing fathers and brothers overboard, to lighten the boat for our se 
curity— that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest meanness of the 
thing. And besides this, the benefits of a reformation to be effected by such 
a system, were too remote in point of time, to warmly engage many in its 
behalf. Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none 
will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us; and theorize 
on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, ^unless we are made 
to think, we are, at the same time, doing something for ourselves. 

What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, to ask or expect a 
whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of others, 
after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of which com- 
munity take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare at no 
greater distant day V Great distance in either time or space has wonderful 
power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be enjoy- 
ed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone, are but little 
regarded, even in our own cases, and much less in the cases of others. 

8till in addition to this, there is something so ludicrous, in promises of 
good, or threats of evil, a great way off, as to render the whole subject with 
which they are connected, easily turned into ridicule. "Better lay down 
that spade you're stealing, Paddy — if you don't, you'll pay for it at the day 
of judgment." "Be the powers, if ye'll credit me so long I'll take another 
jist." 

By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard 
to hopeless ruin, is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy, 
the} r go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now living, 
as well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all — despair to none. As 
applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin, as in 
Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach— 

"While the lamp holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." 

And, what is a matter of the most profound congratulation, they, by exper- 
iment upon experiment, and example upon example, prove the maxim to be 
no less true in the one ca«e than in the other. On every hand we behold 
those, who but yesterday, were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles 
of the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; 
and their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed, who was redeemed 
from his long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are publishing to the ends 
of the earth how great things have been done for them. 

To these new champions, and this new system of tactics, our late success 
is mainly owing; and to them we must mainly look for the fiual consumma- 
tion. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so able as they 
to increase its speed, and its bulk— to add to its momentum, and its magni- 
tude—even though unlearned in letters, for this task none are so well educa- 
ted. To fit them for this work they have been taught in the true school. 
They have been in that gulf, from which they would teach others the means 
of escapes. They have passed that prison wall, which others have long de- 
clared impassable; and who that has not, shall dare to weigh opinions with 
them as to the mode of passing? 



But if it be true, as 1 have insisted, that those who have suffered by intern 
perance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and efficient 
instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it does not follow, 
that those who hare not suffered, have no part left them to perform. Whether 
or not the world would be vastly benefitted by a total and final banishment 
from it, of ail intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open question. 
Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, 1 
believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. 

Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the 
whole demands? Shall he, who cannot do much, be, for that reason excused 
if he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can I do by signing the 
pledge? I never drink, even without signing." This question has already 
been asked and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered 
once more. For the man to suddenly, or in any other way, to break off from 
ihe use of drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years, and 
until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundred fold stronger, and 
more craving, than any natural appetite can be, requires a most powerful 
moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every moral support and in- 
fluence, that can possibly be brought to his aid, and thrown around him 
And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken from whatever ar- 
gument might rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts 
lii?- eyes around him, he should be aide to see, all that he respects, all that 
he admires, all that he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward, 
and none beckoning him back, to his former miserable "widowing in the 
mire." 

But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that 
none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and 
that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us ex- 
amine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most, 
stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and 
sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle, 
I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious in it; 
nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable — then why not? Is it not because 
there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then it is the 
influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion, but the influence 
that other people's actions have on our own actions— the strong inclination 
each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is the influence 
of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of things. It is jusl as 
strong on one subject as another. Let us make it as unfashionable to with- 
hold our names from the temperance pledge, as for husbands to wear their 
wives' bonnets to church, and instances will be just as rare in tin- one case 
as the other. 

"But" say some "we are no drunkards and we shall not acknowledge our- 
selves such, by joining a reformed drunkard's society, whatever our 
influence might be." Surely no christian will adhere to this objection. 

If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take 
on himself the form of sinful man, and, as such, to die an ignominious 
death for their sakes ; surely they will not refuse submission to the infin- 
itely lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal salvation, 
of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their fellow creatines. Nor is 
the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never 
fallen victims, have been spared more from the absence of appetite, than 
from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I be- 
lieve, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts 
will be,- r an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There 
seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant, and warm-blooded, to 
fall into this vice — the demon of intemperance ever see ms to have delighted 
in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. "What one of us but can call 
to mind some relative, more promising in youth than all his fellows, who 
has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He over serais to have gone forth like 
the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the 
fairest "born of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating 
career? In that arrest, all can give aid that will ; and who shall bo excused 
that can, and will not ? Far around as human breath has ever blown, ho 
keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the 
chains of moral death. To all the living everywhere, wo cry, "Come sound 
the moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding groat 
army." — "Come from the four winds, O breath ! and breathe upon those slain 



that they may live." If the relative grandeur of revolutions shall be 
estimated by the great amount of human misery they alleviate, and the 
small amount they inflict, then, indeed, will this be the grandest the world 
shall ever have seen. 

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It has given us 
a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nations of the 
earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as 
to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has 
vegitated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of 
mankind. 

But, with all these glorious results, past, present, and to come, it had its 
evils too. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire ; 
and long, long after, the orphans' cry and the widows' wail, continued to 
break the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable 
price, paid for the blessings it bought. 

Turn now, to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find asii 
bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed — n 
it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By 
it, no orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it, none wounded in feel- 
ing, none injured in interest ; even the dram-maker and dram-seller will 
have glided into other occupations so gradually, as never to have felt the 
change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal song of 
gladness. And what a noble ally this, to the cause of political freedom, 
with such an aid, its march cannot fail to be on and on, till every son of 
earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching dr.iughts of perfect 
liberty. Happy day, when all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all 
matter subjected; mind all conquering mind shall live and move, the mon- 
arch of the world. Glorious consummation ! Hail fall of fury! Reign of 
reason, all hail ! 

And when' the victory shall be complete — when there shall be neither a 
slave nor a drunkard on the earth — how proud the title of that Land, which 
may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of ooth those revolu- 
tions, that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly distinguished that 
people, who shall have planted, and nurtured to maturity, both the political 
and moral freedom of their species. 

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Wash- 
ington — we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest 
name of earth — long since mightiest in the cause of civil libeily, still 
mightiest in moral reformation. On that name a eulogy is expected. It 
cannot be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Wash- 
ington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce 
the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. 



This address was first printed by order of the Wash- 
ingtoniari Society, in the "Sangamo Journal," March 
26, 1842, and is re-printed through the kindness of the 
Springfield Journal Company, for the benefit of the 
Springfield Reform Club, and is on sale by them at 10c. 
a copy, $1.00 per dozen, or $5.00 per hundred, prepaid, 
by mail or express, in quantities to suit. Address 

John H. Gunn, Sec'y. 



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